Grades 3-8 Script
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Introductions
Hook (optional): This video from MSDE is a quick PSA for PARCC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_4RDxYr290&feature=youtu.be
This presentation will help you understand more about what PARCC is, why
your student is taking it, when they are taking it, and how you can help them
prepare.
Many people confuse standards and curriculum. Standards are the “what.” They
determine what every student should know and be able to do by the time they
finish a grade.
Curriculum is the “when” and “how” Curriculum guides teachers on when and
how they should teach the standards to students during the school year.
Assessments allow students to demonstrate that they know what they are
supposed to know based on the standards.
Over the past three years, City Schools has transitioned with the rest of
Maryland to new standards. Nationally, these are called the Common Core State
Standards, and in Maryland, they are referred to as the Maryland College and
Career Ready Standards.
These standards set grade-by-grade learning expectations for students in grades
K-12 for Mathematics and for English/Language Arts and Literacy.
While states have had standards for more than 15 years, this set of standards is
more focused on preparing students for success in college and career. They set
clear, consistent and high learning goals.
What your child learns every day at school is guided by the standards. How they
are taught the information is determined by the curriculum. Teachers design
their daily lesson plans using Baltimore City Schools’ curriculum that is
developed so that students are taught everything they need to know in that grade
according to the standards.
o Optional: Share some anecdotes about instruction, the curriculum and
Common Core implementation that are unique to your school.
Teachers monitor student progress every day through class participation, student
work samples, and tests. Some tests are made by teachers and others are
standardized—developed by the state and administered more broadly. PARCC
is one of these tests. Instead of covering just the information from a unit, like a
classroom test, PARCC is a test on all the topics students learn in that grade –
based on the standards.
The standards set high learning goals: they require students to go beyond the
surface of a long list of topics and support in-depth study and understanding of
key concepts and skills.
PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers
To measure what and how students are learning and their understanding of the
new standards, City Schools will administer PARCC.
PARCC is exciting because it’s designed to be more like what kids are learning
in school.
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So on the tests students will be asked to do things like show their work, solve a
real world problem, write persuasively and read complex text – including nonfiction.
What’s so different about PARCC? Tests that we’ve given in the past did not
have as much of an emphasis on writing as PARCC. Students are expected to
write thorough responses on the assessment – essays instead of just short
responses.
Students will also need to explain themselves in writing on the math assessment
more than they were asked to on old tests like the MSA.
However, this is what our kids are being asked to do in class, so this should not
be unfamiliar to them. We are asking our students to read all kinds of different
things and write extended responses. We are asking our students to solve real
world problems and justify their answers. PARCC is simply meant to mirror
what students are doing in our classrooms every day.
PARCC results will received more quickly, which will give families, teachers,
school leaders, and district staff important information about what we need to
do and how we can work together to ensure that students stay on track.
Also, PARCC is intended to be taken on the computer, which is a shift from our
past tests which were designed to be taken on paper. In a few minutes we will
talk about taking PARCC online or on paper.
Here is an example of what a 3 grade reading question looked like on MSA, the
Maryland School Assessment, and what it will look like on PARCC.
Engagement option:
o Have a parent read the MSA question
o Have another parent read the PARCC question
o Ask parents to explain the differences they see
Students are being asked to defend their answers and use details from the story
to support their answers. On the MSA question, students could get credit for
writing just about anything so long as it was on topic. The MSA question
doesn’t allow the student to demonstrate that he understood what he read and
that he is able to express his thoughts through writing.
Here is an example of a math question for 5th grade. Once we go through this
presentation, we are going to let you see a sample test in your student’s grade
level.
Engagement option:
o Have a parent read the MSA question
o Have another parent read the PARCC question
o Ask parents to explain the differences they see
On the MSA question, a student could have just gotten lucky and guessed the
answer. But on the PARCC question the student has to justify their answer.
They have to model their answer. This is what students do in math class, but not
what their tests have asked them to do in the past. That’s what PARCC is trying
to change – tests should look more like the daily activities that students are
doing instead of something completely new.
Also, unlike past tests – PARCC is given in two parts.
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The first part, the PBA is the Performance Based Assessment. This year, our
school will be scheduling the PBA for students between March 4 and April 2.
This does not mean that your student will test every day!
Students will test about5-6 days and the amount of time during the day will
depend on the section of the test they are taking. MSA was given over 4 days.
As we get closer to testing, you will be notified on the actual dates that your
student(s) will test within the window.
The second part of the test, is called the End of Year Assessment (EOY).
Similar to the PBA, we will be giving your child PARCC sometime between May
4 and June 1. Once we get closer to testing, we will notify you on which days
they will take the test. The EOY will be given over 3-4 days, and like the PBA it
will not take the whole day.
o Optional resource: Chart with the testing times by grade.
The district wanted to ensure that students in the same grade tested all either
tested on paper or computer no matter what school they attended. As a result,
this year, students in Grades 3 and 6 will take PARCC on paper in both subjects
– and so will students in English II.
All other students will take PARCC online.
PARCC is built on the universal design of learning principles so that all students
have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge.
Some things that used to just be accommodations are now accessibility features
so that all students can use these on PARCC. Tools such as highlighting and the
ability to eliminate answer choices allows PARCC to better mirror what students
are doing every day in the classroom.
Some of the accessibility features need to be planned in advance which is why
every student needs something called a Personal Needs Profile (PNP).
Our school test coordinator, along with the classroom teacher of that subject
will compile the PNP for your student. The three things that are part of the
PNP are answer masking (where the student can cover an answer), color
contrast (the colors of the background and font), and reading aloud of the
mathematics test.
If your student has an IEP, 504 plan, or is an English Language Learner, their
plans will automatically qualify them the corresponding features in the PNP.
If your child does not have an IEP/504 plan or is an English Language Learner,
but you think that the test would be more accessible to them if they had access
to one of these features, you should be in touch with your child’s teacher.
For students with accommodations in addition to accessibility features there are
some changes with PARCC from MSA or other tests. This is because PARCC is
a test given in many states, and so the accommodations for students have to be
the same, and different states have different accommodations for their old tests.
The biggest change on PARCC, is the read aloud guidelines for the English
Language Arts assessment. Where students have previously received read aloud
of “selected texts” - PARCC requires that students receive either the whole test
read aloud, or none of it read aloud. If you are wondering how this applies to
your student, please contact _____________ (IEP chair or whoever is
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appropriate school level contact).
PARCC is working with teachers to design a way to communicate results that is
informative and actionable for families, teachers, and schools.
Results from PARCC will allow us to better understand how to support our
students in the areas they need it most, and how to challenge them in the areas
they excel in.
Since we will be able to see PARCC results from around the country, we will be
able to work with other districts like Baltimore to learn what they are doing so
we can continue to improve here.
PARCC plans to get results back to families and schools quicker than what it
was like with the MSA. Since this year is the first time, we will not have results
back until late fall or early winter – but for future years, we should have them
back right around the end of school. That will help families make better
decisions about summer programming and schools plan for the next school
year.
With MSA, there were three – what are called “performance levels” – basic,
proficient and advanced.
On PARCC there are five performance levels – “level 1” through “level 5”
Passing will be a level 4 or level 5
The PBA and EOY will be added together, so students will receive two “level”
designations – one for math and one for ELA.
Over the past three years, students have received curriculum that is aligned to
the new standards. Teachers have ongoing training to deliver this curriculum,
see the connections to PARCC and implement strategies to increase rigor in
every classroom.
Every school has a test coordinator who has been trained on how to administer
PARCC and the changes from MSA to PARCC.
Last year students at 136 schools took an assessment online.
o Optional example of online testing specific to your school
Also last spring, every school participated in the PARCC field test which gave
every school and many students a sneak peak at the assessment.
The best test prep is great classroom instruction and engagement with at-home
activities like homework.
PARCC asks students to defend their answers. Ask you student to support their
statements whenever they make a claim – “why do you think that?” “how do
you know that”
Be in touch with your child’s teacher – see if there is anything they can work on
at home.
Practice math fast facts so that your student spends time on the more in-depth
problem solving part of questions, not facts that they should know
automatically.
For reading, your child should be reading independently every day. Their reading
teacher can help with identifying books that are of interest, and readable for
them. PARCC has long reading passages, so students must be accustomed to
sitting and silently reading.
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Activity:
Practicing
with
PARCC
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Since PARCC is online, the more practice your student has typing, the more
comfortable they will feel on the computer. There are a number of free typing
resources that are on the online resource sheet available at
www.baltimorecityschools.org/parcc
Finally, one of the best ways to determine how to support your student is by
taking the test yourself. We are going to do that now so that you can see what
the experience is going to be like for your students.
Most recommended: If you have space for all the parents that attend, bring
them into a computer lab or use your mobile carts and allow them to take the
practice test.
o Handout that walks parents through the steps to get to the practice tests
Other option: Parents can take a paper practice test. You might want to use this
for parents of 3rd and 6th graders also.
Follow up questions to ask/engage parents with while/after taking practice test:
o What are the questions like? Hard? Easy? Confusing?
o Where do you think your child will be successful?
o Where do you think your child will need more support?
o Is it easy to use the “tools” – why or why not?
o Does anything surprise you?